PLC Strategy & Leadership Symposium
Leadership doesn't have to be isolating.
Thursday | October 22, 2026
150 North Michigan Avenue, Chicago
Spend a day with subject matter experts, presidents, founders, and CEOs who understand the challenges you're facing. You'll leave with critical information, fresh ideas, trusted relationships, and renewed confidence.
Who Should Attend?
Presidents, CEOs, Founders, Partners & Owners
running businesses up to $10M in revenue.
Why Attend?
Running a business has never been more complex...
High-Impact Insights
Critical AI & Risk Management Solutions
Workforce & Leadership Development
Sales & Operational Efficiency
Meet the Experts
Learn from nationally recognized experts and accomplished business leaders who will share practical strategies, real-world experience, and actionable insights.
Ed Sullivan
Chief Economist, The Sullivan Report
An economist, author, and public speaker for over 30 years. Served as chief economist and SVP of market intelligence. Forecasts have helped redefine corporate strategies, guide financial sector analyses, and provide fact-based insights.
Lori Dann
Founder, PLC
Lori's mission is to create a confidential, supportive environment where business leaders stop leading alone and start thriving together. Decades of experience in business, executive strategy and leadership development.
Terry Bishop
President & CEO, Leftherium
A firm that focuses on serving entrepreneurs, businesses and nonprofits with annual revenues of $1M-$25M, delivering tailored guidance at critical stages of growth. Terry's financial leadership helps his clients achieve exponential growth and profitability.
Mary Dombrowski
President, Strategic Inflection Advisory, Inc.
A business development and profit acceleration expert. For 20 years, she has helped professional service providers scale their expertise into sustainable, profitable businesses that operate without dependence on the owners.
Galaxia Martin & Tim O'Hara
The Hack Ninja
Galaxia is a cybersecurity executive, author, and founder. Her reputation is for threat identification and innovate solutions.
Tim and his team think like threat actors to help their clients prevent or mitigate potential cyber attacks.
Ali Atkison, PhD
Vice President, HRD
Connecting learning investments to real outcomes. Expertise in learning design and credentialing in human performance improvement by translating complex learning science into actionable systems.
Julianne Prizant
President, Optipeople Resources
Taking a holistic approach to designing the people systems that let a company scale. An HR partner that builds organizational structure and people programs a business needs when informal management can no longer keep up.
Rick Hayhurst
CEO, Ruthy.io
Ruthy looks for revenue leaks, bottlenecks, and missed opportunities. Using AI Audit assesses where growth is being constrained then translates those findings into done-for-you systems using intelligent multi-message engagement, integration, and optimization for a clear path to measurable growth.
Katherine Gloede & Cassie Lively
American Arbitration Association
Katherine is VP overseeing commercial arbitration and mediation services across the Midwest region.
Cassie is Regional VP of Employment leading business development and outreach activities.
A Day Designed for Business Leaders
Every session has been thoughtfully designed to provide practical insights, meaningful conversations, and actionable strategies that can be applied immediately to your business.
MORNING
7:30 Check In
8:00 Leading a Multi-Generational Workforce
8:50 Profit Enhancement - Harvesting Existing Business Relationships
9:45 Building a Sales Infrastructure - Reducing Owner Dependence
10:35 Risk Mitigation in an AI World
& Action Oriented, Practical Application of AI
AFTERNOON
12:00 Lunch
12:45 How Great Leaders Build Thinkers Through Deliberate Doubt
1:35 What is a People Plan & Why Do I Need One?
2:30 The Economy: Where It's Going & What It Means
3:20 How Smart Business Leaders Handle Disputes
4:15 Cocktail Hour
Registration
Invest one day to gain practical strategies, valuable relationships and fresh perspectives that will deliver return on your investment long after the symposium concludes.
Thursday | October 22, 2026
Registration Includes:
Full-day Symposium
Breakfast & Lunch
Networking
Speaker Presentations & Program Materials
Investment:
PLC Members: Included with Membership
Current Registration Rate: $295 (Early Bird Pricing - available through August 31
Registration Rate September 1: $349
Who Should Attend?
Presidents
CEOs
Founders
Business Owners
Partners
Questions? Contact Lori Dann at [email protected] or 847.287.4523
About PLC
The Presidents' Leadership Council (PLC) is an exclusive, confidential peer advisory forum designed specifically for presidents, CEOs, and partners of small to mid-sized businesses. Each PLC group is carefully curated with non-competing business leaders who meet monthly to tackle real challenges, share hard-won wisdom, and hold each other accountable to their highest potential. PLC provides the structure, facilitation, and community that transforms good leaders into exceptional ones.